Summer Break

Chapter 14

AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Good morning everyone, just one quick note. I am going on vacation for a week starting today. Because of this I will have little to no time to write. What this means is that there will not be an update next week. Thank you in advance for understanding.

Everyone took a seat on the ground and some pulled out some water. Curtis finally released Lilia from his arms as he laid her against Grawder's side after Grawder had laid down behind them. Curtis' behavior was unusual, and if anyone could think beyond the worry they held for Lilia right now they probably would have felt happy for her for the attention she was getting from the former prince.

"So Arthur, how long do you think till she can move?" Claire asked Arthur as she leaned back against the rock wall.

"No telling," Arthur replied as he took a seat. "It's all a matter of how fast the antidote works its way through her body, how much venom got into her body, and a bunch of other factors that we can't possibly know."

"How did this even happen?" Feyrith asked no one in particular. "I would say we were doing pretty good. So how did one of them get in that close?"

"I don't know, how about we ask Claire?" Curtis replied in an accusatory tone.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Claire asked in a defensive tone.

"Well let's see, Lilia was between you and Arthur, and technically she was behind Arthur. Do you see where I'm going with this?" Curtis replied angrily as he slowly walked towards Claire.

"You think this is my fault?" Claire yelled.

"Well how else could one of those damned things get so close!" Curtis shot back. The two of them practically nose to nose as they yelled at one another.

"And how about you? You abandoned your position just to catch her! One of us could have done that? But instead you run through half our party just to catch her!" Claire continued to yell.

Arthur was starting to get back up to bring this argument to an end, when the temperature dropped suddenly to the point they could see their breath.

"Enough both of you," Kathyln said in a calm tone, allowing her magic to take the place of yelling. "Curtis, sit down and tend to Lilia." Curtis glared at his sister for a moment, then turned around and stomped back over to Lilia. Kathyln then turned to face Claire and bowed. "I apologize for Curtis' behavior towards you. You know how he is about his friends, he doesn't mean anything that he said, he's just frustrated."

"It's ok, I get it," Claire replied in a much calmer tone, then turned around and sat back down.

Kathyln then looked over to Arthur to see him looking at her with a surprised smirk on his face as he was sitting back down. Kathyln blushed slightly, but then noticed Tess was already sitting very close beside him. Kathyln wasn't pleased with Tess being that close to Arthur, but wasn't going to let it stop her from speaking to him and walked over.

"I'm sorry that I intervened, I know you could have and would have been able to handle it, but I believed that I needed to handle him so he'll calm down," Kathyln apologized.

"That's fine, but why did you feel that you needed to handle it?" Arthur asked.

Kathyln looked hesitant at first, uncertain as to how to answer. "Before Curtis and I attended Xyrus Academy, with the exception of royal balls, we rarely ever came in contact with anyone our own age. Curtis never cared for the noble children at the balls, the boys were told to become his friend so that their family may be in our fathers favor, and the girls were told to make him fall in love with them, and then the opposite was true for me. Since we both knew this we were reluctant to let ourselves ever get close to anyone. That day at the auction house when we first met, after what happened it left Curtis angry for at least a week. You see when our father suggested the two of you having a friendly duel after he learned you were getting a sword, Curtis had hoped that could have been an opportunity to make his first friend. Last summer when Director Goodsky decided to form the disciplinary committee and Claire recruited us, that was when Curtis finally made his first friends."